Page 57 of Strictly Pretend

“Come on.” She tugs at my hand, giving Brooks a sly look. “We have so much to catch up on. Brooks, you’re coming too, right?”

“Sure,” he murmurs.

I can’t see his face so I have no idea if he’s happy or annoyed about this one. Knowing him, it’s probably the latter.

“Come on then.” She pulls me out through the door. Brooks lets me go, but the feeling of his hands on my stomach still lingers. So does the confusion because I don’t know what’s going on in my head but it needs to understand the difference between real and fake.

CHAPTER

FIFTEEN

BROOKS

My phone buzzes as the three of us start walking down the makeshift path that the construction company must have dug and layered with bark at the same time they put up the tents.

“Go ahead,” I tell Emma. She gives me a little frown that should annoy me but it doesn’t. I can’t remember the last time anything about her annoyed me. “I’ll take this and join you when I can.”

“He’s always so busy,” Emma says to Mia, shooting me what looks weirdly like a warm look. “I’m hoping this week I get to loosen him up a little.”

“Good luck with that,” Mia says, winking at me.

I turn away and accept the call.

“Hello.”

“Brooks? It’s Luke,” my assistant chirps out over the phone. “You’ll never guess what’s happened?”

I close the door to the air-conditioned yurt and shuck off my shirt because it’s hot and I really need to get changed out of my dress clothes and head to the lake after this call. I don’t like leaving Emma on her own – or even with Mia. Not with her ex around. Even if he’s staying up at the house he’ll probably behanging out with everybody else at the lake and the thought of her having to deal with him alone galls me.

“What?” I say. Usually I’d reply with something sardonic, but seriously, I’m hot and bothered and want to cut to the chase.

“We’ve just finished going through the remaining files in the Redfern acquisition. The paper files,” he adds. “There were thirty boxes of them to scan into the system.” And I know how much Luke hates the grunt work of doing that.

It’s necessary because a lot of our real estate comes from a time way before the world became digital. And we need the details of the builds in case we want to make future changes. Plus any deeds and liens against the property can be enforced if we make the wrong alterations.

“Well, thank you for doing it,” I say, unzipping my case and grabbing a pair of shorts. They’re not swim shorts, but they’ll do. “Is there anything else?”

“Don’t you want to know what we’ve found out about the Redfern Building?” he asks.

I freeze. “What?”

“There’s a new contract. One signed in the nineties. By both lessees. It’ll override any previous lease that existed. Like the one we all thought was still valid.”

“What does it say about the length of the contract.”

“It doesn’t. Not exactly. It includes a notice period that can be invoked by either side.” He pauses. “It’s one calendar month.”

“Does it explicitly revoke the previous contract?” I ask, because that would make it crystal clear.

“No.” Luke clears his throat. “I’ve sent it over to the legal department for Ryan to look at immediately.” Ryan is the head of the legal department and the best legal mind I know when it comes to property. “We’ll hopefully get an answer soon.”

“Okay.”

There’s a pause. “Damn, I thought you’d be happier about this,” Luke says. “Seriously, it could change everything. We could get the building vacant with no issues. You wouldn’t even need to offer them the alternative anymore. Because we all know that you’d be renting that out at a loss, too.”

I inhale sharply. “I’ll be happy about it when Ryan tells us if it’s enforceable or not,” I say. “But can you do me a favor?”

“Sure.”

---